Turkish Government Denies Request for Church in Tarsus

American Catholic ^ | 8/5/09

[marshmallow]

VATICAN CITY (CNS)—Despite a personal request from Pope Benedict XVI and repeated requests by Christian leaders in Turkey, the Turkish government has decided that the only church in Tarsus, the city of St. Paul's birth, will remain a government museum.

The Church of St. Paul, built as a Catholic church in the 1800s and confiscated by the government in 1943, was used throughout the 2008-2009 year of St. Paul for prayer services by Christian pilgrims.

After the end of the yearlong celebration commemorating the 2,000th anniversary of St. Paul's birth, the Turkish government decided the building could not be used exclusively for worship.

Bishop Luigi Padovese, the apostolic vicar for Anatolia and president of the Catholic bishops' conference of Turkey, told the Vatican newspaper Aug. 1 that the government decided to return to the practice of allowing Christians to pray in the church as long as they made reservations three days in advance and bought an admission ticket.

Meeting the Turkish bishops in February during their "ad limina" visits to Rome to report on the status of their dioceses, Pope Benedict had expressed his hopes that the government would give Christians permanent use of the building for prayer.

Bishop Padovese told L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, that in addition to asking Christians to pay to enter the church, Turkish authorities have placed a time limit on Masses and other prayer services so they do not disrupt the normal operation of the museum.

"It is a lack of respect for the right to religious freedom and freedom to worship," the bishop said.

[marshmallow]

So much Christian history in Turkey.......Tarsus......Ephesus......Antioch......Constantinople. One day, by God's grace, it will throw off the yoke of Islam but I don't know when.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

The Turk’s very act of denial speaks to the weakness of their faith.

[GOP_Party_Animal]

"It is a lack of respect for the right to religious freedom and freedom to worship," the bishop said.

Uh... welcome to Islam, Bishop Obvious.

[353FMG]

Why even ask a Muslim for anything. The West should reciprocate and tell Muslims to demolish their ugly mosques.
Oops, I forgot, the West is no longer Christian and Islam knows it. There is nothing to stop or slow down their take-over of the West.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

More “tolerance” from this bunch.

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	...the Turkish government has decided that the only church in Tarsus, the city of St. Paul's birth, will remain a government museum. The Church of St. Paul, built as a Catholic church in the 1800s and confiscated by the government in 1943, was used throughout the 2008-2009 year of St. Paul for prayer services by Christian pilgrims. After the end of the yearlong celebration commemorating the 2,000th anniversary of St. Paul's birth, the Turkish government decided the building could not be used exclusively for worship. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[Kolokotronis]

Big surprise! :(

[NYer]

Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

[Cronos]

sapwned by the desert of Central Asia who destroyed the people and civilzations of Anatolia.

Well, actually most people who now identify themselves are "Turks" in Turkey are really of Anatolian descent with very minor Turkish blood, if at all. They are really Luwian, Lydian, Armenian, Greek, Hittite, Roman etc. blood -- very little actual turkic blood, quite ethnically distinct from uzbeks, Turkomen etc. who in turn have a lot of Irani blood.

[ZULU]

“Well, actually most people who now identify themselves are “Turks” in Turkey are really of Anatolian descent with very minor Turkish blood, if at all.”

I think you would need to execute a genetic test to prove that. I have ssen Turks myself and they appear to be a mixed bag ethnically, but certainly don't resemble the images of pre-Turkish Anatolians that are extant.

At any rate, the cultural milieu they created there was certainly a far cry from the advanced civilizations of Greece, the Hittites, etc and most certainly alien to that of the predominantly Christian, pre-Turkish culture which existed there before their unfortunate arrival.

As a matter of fact, if I remember my history correctly, one of the main reasons that the First Crusade was necessary was because the Seljuk Turks had arrived in the area and, unlike their Arabic predecessors, were denying entry to Christian holy sites in Palestine, attacking Eastern Greek Christians, and persecuting and abusing Christian pilgrims from western Europe.

[ZULU]

ADDITIONALLY, one of the reasons the Balkans are so politically unstable is due to attacks by YOUR people against the Christian states of that area, and your kidnapping of Christian young boys to serve as slave soldiers - Janissaries - against their own parents and relatives, as well as capturing THEM and Christian women to satisfy the insatiable lusts of your people as sex slaves.

[Cronos]

Genetic origins of the Turkish people

This states that "Scientists have long debated the extent to which this shift in language was accompanied by a genetic replacement of the former population,[1] and it has been concluded that despite the overemphasis on their Central Asian roots,[2] the Anatolian Turks are overwhelmingly indigenous to the area and they are in no sense racially mongoloid.[3] "

The hittites, Lydians etc of course were merged with the Greeks by 1000 AD when the Seljuk turks came. The Turks, had already heavily intermarried with the Irani and Armenian and Georgian people and others.

They mostly just co-opted the existing Byzantine greek culture and organisation, just sitting on top and taking the money. They were just a minority ruling over a large majority. Over the centuries, their language became the lingua franca, but the people remained ethnically more closely related to Greeks, Armenians etc. rather than to Turkomen.

Finally, the First Crusade was due to the Egyptian Fatimid Caliph who attacked the Church of the holy Sepulchre.

[a_Turk]

We do have insatiable lusts, that’s true.

The balkans fell to us when we took Byzantium.

Yugoslavia was split by the entity that is gobbling up the pieces. The EU does not like large voting blocks.

People with insatiable lusts are winners. They take what they want. We take what we want.

[Islaminaction]

Is this the same “moderate” Turkey that people speak of?

In the end the Islamic world is going to unite against non-Muslims.

[ZULU]

I see. I agree.

And I think I explained quite clearly what I want in my last message.

[wtc911]

I see that after years of pretending and hiding aturk is finally coming out of his islamist closet.

[Religion Moderator]

Do not make this thread "about" individual Freepers. That is also a form of "making it personal."

Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.